Does Obama Really Want to Make Social Security Cuts Even the Tea Party Wouldn't Touch?

[laughingliberal]

The president could be on the brink of making a serious mistake, one with grave implications for his political future and even graver implications for aging Americans. If he responds to this election by adopting the Deficit Commission's recommendation to cut Social Security, President Obama will be snatching catastrophe from the jaws of defeat. He'll be responding to the "voice of the people" by giving people something they really, really don't want.

The Campaign for America's Future and Democracy Corps commissioned a poll from Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research which showed that an overwhelming 69 percent of voters agreed that "politicians should keep their hands off Social Security and Medicare" when they address the deficit.

Yet on 60 Minutes last night, the president said that we're "still confronted with the fact that the vast majority of the federal budget are things that people really think are important, like Social Security and Medicare and defense. And so, you then have to start making some tough decisions about how do we pay for those things that we think are important? ... I mean, we're gonna have to, you know, tackle some big issues like entitlements that, you know, when you listen to the Tea Party or you listen to Republican candidates they promise we're not gonna touch."

That doesn't just sound as if he's preparing to cut the Medicare and Social Security "entitlement" programs. It almost seems as if he's taunting the Tea Party and the GOP for not being tough enough to cut them. When a Democratic president sounds like he wants to outflank the Tea Party by running to its right, we're in deep trouble.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rj-eskow/does-obama-really-want-to_b_780517.html

*sigh*

[countrydad58]

1. We sure are!

I am on SS Disability! If Obama does this he will single handely destroy the dem. party!

[Radical Activist]

2. Or he's talking about cutting defense and making another push for health care.

But we can expect the usual suspects to always engage in wild negative speculation.

[laughingliberal]

5. Well, less than a month, we'll know. nt

[emulatorloo]

6. It is weird isn't it? I'm not seeing much in this article except negative spin .

Great DU meltdown/conspiracy theory fodder.

[laughingliberal]

7. Bookmarking.

We'll take a look in December.

[indepat]

3. To do so would be a political death wish, imo, just as surely as Rahm's dissing of the

professional left was: it would surely signal, imo, that a second term is neither wanted or desired or that the tea leaves have been horribly mis-read. :patriot:

[emulatorloo]

4. Sounds like pretty serious negative spin.

The Republicans claim they will make cuts to pay for the rich peoples tax cuts. Obama is basically calling them out on their bullshit.

[laughingliberal]

8. I'd be delighted to find you're correct.

:)

[emulatorloo]

9. It is pretty crazy to take "things that people really think are important" and get Obama is a teaba

teabagger.

[laughingliberal]

11. Huh? I think the headline asked if Obama is going to support cuts that would scare even...

the teabaggers. I'm hoping he's not going to support the cuts but I'm very worried. He would not come out strongly against them during the campaign.

[Meldread]

10. I disagree.

I'm almost giddy. I want Obama to taunt the Republican's into actually being VERY clear about where they want to cut. I want Republican's to be explicit. I want Obama to say that we not only have to deal with the deficit but the debt as well. I'd have Obama bring Rand Paul under his wing to draw up a proposal which would cut the government to the absolute bone.

THEN when the Republican's have staked out a position, UTTERLY AND COMPLETELY DESTROY THEM. Demagogue it to hell. I want to see Democrats do exactly what Republican's did during the health care debate. Death panels? Fuck death panels! Republican's want to take Grandma behind the shed and put a bullet in her - they think she costs us too much money! Panic, grandma, panic - vote Democrat!

Let's not forget that it was Senior citizens that gave us this past election, and that they're the solid Republican voting group. Imagine if Republican's actually made the attempt to deal with the debt and deficit. Seniors would abandon them in droves and vote for Democrats to save themselves - ideally becoming a solid voting block for Dems.

Yes, I'm giddy. Obama should be out there everyday demanding that the Republican's put forward a balanced budget. He should play upon their ideologues like Rand Paul, who would do exactly what Obama wants - then proceed to defend it, even though it'd utterly destroy the Republican Party.

[laughingliberal]

13. I think we all have good ideas how President Obama should play the GOP.

The only question in my mind is if he will.

After all, he passed a Republican health care bill without one Republican vote and got all the blame from the people who hated it. I hope he does better with this.

[pipi_k]

12. Or....

maybe he's sending a "Go ahead, make my day" message to the GOP, daring them to act, or not, on it, and if they do, then the Dems can ride in at the last minute to save Medicare and Social Security from the evil Republicans.

Which then becomes the theme for the 2012 elections when disenfranchised (this time around) Seniors get really really pissed off and vote accordingly.

What a plan that would be....


:evilgrin:

[laughingliberal]

14. That would be a great plan! Let's everybody write now & tell him that's what we want! nt

[madrchsod]

15. is this from politico or huffington? wait a minute....

is there a difference? what a big load of bullshit. if obama tried that he`d be gone in 2012 along with every democrat and republican who voted for gutting social security. the writer of this bullshit knows that.

[laughingliberal]

18. Well, I certainly ope you're right & I'll bookmark this so we can celebrate together when you...

are and talk about how unfair Huffpo is to the President.

[amborin]

16. yes, I'd be willing to be he tries to change Soc Sec

it's been on the drawing board as far as I can see


Obama's made *many* serious mistakes, starting with lobbying for passage of TARP, while still a candidate for prez......

[ipaint]

17. Yes. nt